OTTAWA — Three men hope to bring their varied experiences into the Putnam County Commissioners Office, each promising a commonsense approach to the job.
Republican Michael Lammers, independent John Welty and Democrat Tony Wobler each are running for the position in the Nov. 8 election. Whomever wins will replace two-term commissioner Travis Jerwers, who lost in the May Republican primary to Lammers.
Sitting commissioner Vincent Schroeder, a Republican, is unopposed in November and heading into his fourth term. They’ll join John Love, a Democrat, who is up for re-election in 2018.
Lammers’ goals
Lammers, 58, of Ottawa, is a self-employed information technology professional for more than 30 years, running Log On Computers in Ottawa. His business acumen prepared him for the commissioner’s office, he said, along with recent preparation.
“The last five years have been spent attending town council, township trustee and fire department meetings, along with many county agency monthly meetings,” he said. “This has allowed me to become very aware of what is going on in our great county and prepared me to step into the commissioner’s chair fully informed about problems each community may be facing.”
He wants to keep the tax base low by closely watching county spending. He also wants to support the Sheriff’s Office and police departments and be a voice for taxpayers.
“Putnam County is the greatest place in the world to live, work and raise a family,” he said. “I will work hard to keep it that way.”
Welty’s goals
Welty, 53, of Ottawa, works as a licensed locomotive engineer. He previously worked in the rubber industry before being downsized. He’d weighed running for commissioner before and decided to do it this year, saying, “You’ve got to make things happen in life.”
He said he thought the current board of commissioners was “doing a fine job” but wasn’t available enough to the public.
“I’ve had a few people over the last few months tell me they went up to visit the commissioners, and they couldn’t meet with them and got turned away,” Welty said. “I wouldn’t let that happen with me on the job. I will be available to people.”
He said he wanted to analyze the county’s budget once in office and fine-tune it.
“If there’s debt out there, and I’m sure there is, we should look at eliminating as much debt as possible,” he said.
Wobler’s goals
Wobler, 63, of Leipsic, is a retired personnel manager with the Ohio Department of Transportation who now owns Tony Wobler Electric. He sees a communication void between the county’s courthouse and its residents.
“I’m finding as I campaign throughout the county that there’s not a lot of communication between the Commissioners Office and especially the outlying areas,” said Wobler, 63, of Leipsic. “When I’ve been campaigning, I’ve had town hall meetings in the evenings a lot of time, and people have come in to address their concerns.”
Wobler pointed to the misinformation involving the proposed 6119 water and sewer board, which he opposed, as an example of where better communication would’ve helped.
“It’s something they needed to slow down a little bit and look at the adverse effect it had on people,” he said.
He said he wants to generate “standard operating procedures” for the county. He said while he’s a Democrat, he’s a “pro-life, pro-gun” Democrat whose maintained that point of view even after his son died in military action in Iraq.
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